The Crimson Kingdom
The Crimson Kingdom is a large realm consisted of roughly 200,000 people. Ruled by the Crimson King, an ageless and all-powerful ruler, and his small council, the kingdom maintains a theology based around the duelist nature of day and night. Geography : Most of the Crimson Kingdom is temperate in climate with lush plains located around the Capital City south to the Sea, the Mountains of the Moon to the West, and hardwood forests to the South East. Two major rivers, the Silver and the Corley, flow through the kingdom with the Corley flowing south to Baelor's Sea and the Silver River flowing east from the Mountains of the Moon. In the Southwest lies the Wastes, a land of desert and sand, in which few live and is more or less independent of the kingdom. The far North is a high steppe ravged by the Warlock-Khans, savage nomadic tribes that preform fell magic. Settlements Throughout the Crimson Kingdom there are many small settlements complimented by the large fortresses and cities scattered throughout the land. The North :: The North contains only two large settlments. Of those two settlements, it is Vandall's Keep that is most foreboding. A feudual holding built by the Vandall family just over two centuries ago, the keep houses a large garrison to maintain order and defend against the enemies in the North and includes a powerful covenant of Black Magi in addition to a the largest bastion of Preists of the Crimson Order outside of the Capital Providence. The current family of the keep is the duchess and mage, Claire Vandall, known for her ruthlessness and decievingly innocent demeanor, and her young son, Fitzwilliam. To the East lies Bernard, a hearty town composed of woodsmen and trappers and a few hardy farmers able to somehow support the city despite the hardships of the North's poor soil. The Capital Providence :: The Capital Providence is a densly populated area located across the northen bank of the Silver River. Here lies the Capital City, a city of around 20,000, that contains the Crimson Palace, Bard's College, High Tenple of the Sun and Moon, and largest bastion of military might in the kingdom. Immediately to the the East is the Black Abbey, where new Nightsworn Members are initiated into the order and trained and the Nightsworn's largest holding. The Central Providence :: A loosely defined area from the south of the Silver River to the Inquisitor's Castle east to the Corley River, the Central Providence includes the mines of the Mountians of the Moon and the Inquisitidor's Caste itself. The mines in this providence provide the iron, coal, and silver that the kingdom uses in steel and coins. The Inquisitor's Castle contains the dungeon in which most prisoners are cast and is maintained by the Crimson Order, however the most important political prisoners and those caught within the Capital Providence can be found in the Royal Dungeon below the Crimosn Palace, still the castle is well defended and serves as the training grounds for the Crimson Order. The South : Politics :: The South includes the large city of Port Lyr in addition to the smaller settlements of Bennett and Blue Pine. Port Lyr is by far the most important of three with a far greater population and constantly bustling with trade. It is said anything can be acquired at its busy docks, and the kingdom is far more lax in its enforcement of laws here in the name of far trade. Located to the East of Port Lyr, Bennett, has a fair number of muscians and a large temple dedicated to the Lord of Dawn. Bennett takes its name from its ruling family. Blue Pine is a traditional city with a providencial way of thinking. It is ruled by the Walton family. Religion : Religion in the Crimson Kingdom is essential to the socio-political processes behind the throne. The duelist religion consists of two deities, the Lady of Night and Queen of the Moon, whose domains include night, darkness, death, love, poetry, and song, and the Lord of Dawn and King of Light and Father to the King. His domains include fire, life, birth, war, day, and light. The Night Orders : The Night Orders is a collective term encompassing several religious organizations that revere the Lady of Night. Of all of the Night Orders, only the Dreamers are common throughout the empire, and while the Nightsworn maintain several castles throughout the land, only a single temple is dedicated to the Moonchildren. *The Moonchildren - A female religious priesthood of girls from ages 12-18 dedicated to chastity and devotion to the the Queen of the Moon. The daughters of the temple are overseen by a matron appointed by the Black Queen. Members are encourage to pursue a romantic and idealistic and style of courtly love, are active only during the night, and are taught the basics of and poisons. Members may chose to join the Nightsworn, the Dreamers, or leave the Night Orders. The only temple dedicated to this order is located in the capital city just outside of the royal gardens. *The Nightsworn - A militaristic organizations female courtesans, priestesses, and assassins, the Nightsworn master the use of shadow manipulation and poison. Within the Nightsworn lie the Black Magi, an elite group of mages that participate in necromancy and are given positions of high accord. The Nightsworn serve directly under the Black Queen. *The Dreamers - The only Night Order open to both men and women, dreamers focus on benefiting the community and the fine arts. Many serve as mages and seers in small communities. Unlike the Nightsworn, the Dreamers are common in rural areas than large cities. The Dawn Orders : The majority of people in the kingdom favor the Lord of Dawn as their patron deity. The Crimson King is believed to be a son of the King of Light, and as such the worship the Lord of Dawn is encouraged more so than even the Lady of Night. *The Sunchildren - Analogous to the Moonchildren, the Sunchildren are also all female and pursue many of the same disciplines. Although properly part of an order of their own, their temple shares the same ground as that on the Moonchildren, however, they are only active during the day while the Moonchildren are active only during the night. Sunchildren have a matron chosen by the Grand Prince of Dawn. *The Crimson Order - The Crimson Order is a zealous monastic order that proclaims itself the self-righteous keepers of morality and law throughout the kingdom. The Crimson Order offers two paths, the warrior and the priest, and are lead by the Grand Prince of Dawn, appointed by the king. This order serves as the backbone of the kingdom's professional army, and the king's personal guard is composed of members of this organization. *Lightbringers - The Temples of the Lightbringers are the most common in the realm. Members serve as clergy for the general population and strive to aid their local communities. They are also among the most devout in the land, living modestly as an act of charity to the land. Heretical Sects *Pampiltanes - The Pampiltan Dynasty ruled the kingdom ages ago before the Crimson King using what was said to be his blessed might granted by divine will, overthrew the last king of the dynasty. There are those that claim that his descendants are those chosen by the Lord of Dawn to rule the kingdom and the Crimson King employed fell magics to gain the throne. These are the most hated enemies of the established churches. *Mother Cult - The mother cult argues that is one deity, the Queen of the Sun and Moon. This heresy may have ancient roots in the region, and followers believe that both the Moonchildren and Sunchildren are corruptions of the original temples of the Queen. The "return" of this religion can be traced to a woman named Sylvia Yves, a former matron of the Moonchildren, about 100 years ago. The Crimson King is not believed to be divine in this heresy as he claims to be the son of a false god. *Witches - Any magic user that does not belong to the church or is not in service to a feudal lord is deemed a witch and persecuted without mercy. Language The Crimson Kingdom has been linguistically distinct from other languages form thousands of years. Overtime it has encorporated elements of the Ancient Tongue and some other languages from before the Second Dawning of Civilisation. It has also been influenced by some of the pronounciations of the Common Tongue. Pronouciation The langauge of the Crimson Kingdom is known as Bessersanich, ''and has many similiar vowel sounds to the Common Tongue even though it has a very different lexicon and grammatical construction. It is important to note that "Long Vowel" sounds are only achieved by a vowel followed immediately by an "E". For example, ''aet ''is pronounced like "ate", but the pronouciation ''bemet ''be closest to "beh-met". The only exception to this rule is when y serves as a vowel. In this case it is always an " long I" sound. Also note that that there is no "soft C", C is always pronouced the same way as a "K sound", and an E at the end of a word produces the "short A" sound. Articles The first major difference between the common tongue and ''Bessersanich ''is the fact that ''Bessersanich ''poessesses three definate articles, ''thae, thaetet, ''and thaet, which are used in the nominative, accusative, and dative case respectedly. Take the following sentence as an example: ''Thae Cyn frere thaetet Ringe met thaet Maten. '' The above translates to "the queen gives the ring to the women," with Cyn being the subject in the nominative case and thus recieving ''thae, Ringe ''being the direct object in the accusative case and thus recieving ''thaetet, ''and ''Maten ''being the indirect object in the dative case and thus recieving ''thaet. Dative Prepositions Certain prepositions indicate the dative case. These are the following: *''aet - near, beside *''apft ''- after, since *''beferet - ''from, out of *''bemet - ''into *''cryt - ''across from, opposite to *''fer - ''for *''met ''- to *''rit - ''with An example would be the following sentence: ''Bemet thaet Meer comet thae Maenen. Sentence Structure "The man went into the marsh," is the English translation of above and one can clearly see that Meer ''recieved ''thaet ''because it immediately followed a prepositional phrase beginning with ''bemet. Manen ''recieved the normal t''haet ''as the subject. In the above one can also see a common form of sentense structure. When beginning a sentence with a prepositional phrase the verb comes before the subject and if time was given it would come before the verb. However, it is equally common for one to order a sentence like the above in the following way: ''Thae Maenen comet bemet thaet Meer'.'' Here the subject comes before the verb and the place. Since both are equally acceptable, one may here both in a conversation. The only time the sentence must follow a certain order is when asking a question: Thae Maenen com'et '''bemet thaet Meer?'' In a question the subject must always come first. Pronouns and Verb Conjugation Verb conjugation is another important aspect of the language, and to understand the verb conjugation one must know the pronouns. *''ae ''- I *''mae, ma, merh - he, she, it *''yin - ''you (singular informal) *''yimaeten,yimaten - ''you (singular formal male), you (singular formal female) commonly contracted to yimae and yima *''yere ''- you (plural) *''poli - ''they Most pronouns also change to a seperate form used in both accusative and dative case, and ''yimae/yimaten ''have a different form for each case. *''ae - am ''(both cases) *''mae - mir ''(both cases) *''ma - mi (both cases) *''merh'' - no changes *''yin - yins (both cases) *''yimaeten/yimaten - no changes *''yimae/yima'' - yims ''(accusative) ''yimaeya (''dative) *''yere - ''no change *''poli - polem ''(both cases) Even when the form pronoun changes, the conjugation is the same: *''ae - root com *''mae, ''''ma, m'erh ''- root + e come *''yin - root + tet cometet'' *''yimaeten, yimaten, yimae, yima - root + en comen'' *''yere - root + ere comere'' *''poli - root + t comt'' To make any verb past tense root + et ''is the formula (''comet). Culture The culture of the Crimson Kingdom has long set it apart from its neighbors. Religion has played a great role in the development of unique customs and the Crimson King's rise to power has caused the culture to have shifted very little over the past eight hundred years. For these reasons the Crimson Kingdom remains culturally unique. Art remains mostly dedicated to relgion and portraits conditioned by nobility. Art Art is an impotant part of the culutre of the Crimson Kingdom. Painting has long been encouraged among the clergy, and as a result a large amount of religious work has is represented in temples across the kingdom. Most of the painted art can be described as using the style of Romanticism to bring out emotional qualities in scenes and landscapes. It addition to painted art, weaving is a common form of art work in the northern reaches of the kingdom. Intricate patterns are often woven into wool thread to express a multitude of symbolism. Poetry Poetry is encouraged among the Dreamers, the Sunchildren, and the Moonchildren, but while the Dreamers right a wide variety of poetry, the others focus more on the sonnet. The sonnets of the Crimson Kingdom resemble the English Sonnet and are the normal fourteen lines. Surprisingly, not uncommon for such poems to be written in languages other than ''Bessersanich ''with a good number produced in the Common Tongue and the elite even learning to write in the Ancient Tongue. Music Cuisine Clothing The Court of the Crimson King The Court of the Crimson King is made up of those that hold positions of power and those that the king sees fit to allow audience. In addition to the positions below, the Bardmaster of the Capital City Bard College and several other entertainers are commonly present. The Black Queen : The Black Queen is the official head of religion in the kingdom. An ancient being, the Black Queen has been in power for as long as the Crimson King has reigned. She is an accomplished magi, who has control over a vast array of necromancy and the Nightsworn. It is rumored that she is not immortal, but rather she requires a the sacrifice of a beautiful maiden each year to maintain her youth. Her main functions within the council include feats of magic and issuing religious proclamations as well as being the court inquisitor. The Fire Witch : The Fire Witch is a mysterious female figure that is a recent addition to the court. Clothed in a red hooded robe, her face is never seen, but it is rumored to be extremely beautiful. She is, for the most part, a mute courtier, and when she speaks she rarely utters more than a single word. She has the ability to transform at will into a massive bird composed entirely of fire, but during such a transformation see becomes nothing more than a beast bent on wanton destruction with no reassemblance to a human mind. The Wisemen : The wisemen are the king's personal seers. Skilled in the art of divination and prophecy, the wisemen offer a vital service to the king and are always present. The Grand Prince of Dawn : The Grand Prince of Dawn is the head of the Crimson Order and appointed by the king to head the military of the kingdom. The enforcement of law and defense of the kingdom fall under his domain, and it is he who is responsible for maintaining the status of religion in the realm. Lord Mayor of the Capital Providence : The Lord Mayor of the Capital Providence is elected by the aristocratic families in the capital providence. He is the symbolically in charge of the capital's defense and is the Keeper of the City Keys. His main duties include maintaing and improving the city and the surrounding farmland. Lord Speaker : The Lord Speaker position is occupied by one of the 11 eleven high lords of the kingdom and rotates annually. His inclusion on the council is to represent the interest of the lord's of the kingdom. Category:Fantasy RPs